David Allen has left his second failed attempt (first being Horizons) at making an MMO, and now Alganon is in the hands of the notorious Derek Smart. I say notorious because Mr. Smart doesn't have the most stellar of reputations when it comes to interacting with the gaming community. Here's a quote from one particular interview, "Sometimes when I get online, and it's quiet, and I see something that attracts my attention, I'll post just to piss these guys off. That's why I do it. Because I'm in a good mood that day, I go in there and I start trouble."
There goes the neighborhood. Personality issues aside, he is held in high regard as an indie developer.(*edit - in certain circles)
The Alganon members didn't receive the courtesy of receiving this information on the official forums, but rather through massively.com. This should get interesting.
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7 comments:
I'm sorry but ... "he is held in high regard as an indie developer."?!?!?
The notorious Mr. Smart is a train wreck and so are the vast majority of his products. He refuses to recognize bugs and other shortcomings in his own work. His support is draconian .. the only way to receive support from him is to bow down before his greatness .. even then you will get a lecture on your own stupidity with using his "brilliant" product.
I'm gearing up for the flamewar of the decade.
Well....I snagged that remark from some industry articles on him. I never even heard of the guy before today.
Whether or not he actually has talent in creating mmo's, seeing that he finds joy in pissing off the community doesn't bode well for Alganon.
I'm on standby waiting to see if he starts posting on the forums with that sort of attitude.
-Mr. Smart is a lateral move for Alganon. He's no better or worse on the whole than DA.
Take that comment as you wish.
Thanks for putting this out there for folks to read. Have a good one.
Jergis
If you've not followed Mr. Smart's career thus far .. allow me to provide a link with hours and hours of entertainment .. http://follies.werewolves.org/
Mr. Smart is infamously, notoriously, sickeningly narcissistic. While he can apparently code, his products are specatular messes .. he's sued or threatened to sue his publishers, reviewers, forum and usenet posters .. he's stratospherically high on promises and utterly abyssal in follow-through or execution.
Much of this history goes back a decade which you can read in the link provided.
Now, I don't play or plan to play Alganon, nor do I know his involvement with its development. But given some general reviews I've read on it thus far and knowing Mr. Smart's track-record .. there's an epic trainwreck coming.
Tell us how you really feel guys, don't hold back ;-).
I'd never heard of the guy either until I read that article yesterday. Their are certainly some developers that have stock low enough with me to give me pause, but I generally try to take a "wait-and-see" attitude with any product that is on my radar. There is more to a product than whoever is in charge of it, after all.
Hopefully their CS guys will have the sense to keep him on a short leash (in terms of community interactions) if he really is that much of an asshat.
Jergis - You're probably right on that one. Things couldn't have gotten much worse so will either stay bad or go up from here.
Dzher - That site came up in a search I did earlier. Were so many posts to take in one sitting but wow, was shocked at some of what I read.
Yeebo - hehe he sure brings out some feelings huh? I'm in wait and see mode.
Oh, THAT David Allen! I saw his name and was all like... "That name sounds familiar, where did I hear it from?"
He's failboating another MMO, eh. Good times.
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